Homes and a leisure centre were built on charitable land in Ashfield decades ago in breach of the land’s intended use, a council report has revealed.
Ashfield District Council is now seeking to resolve the historic issues through two land exchanges involving parks in Kirkby-in-Ashfield and Hucknall.
The affected sites are a small part of Lord Francis Park in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, where the Nuncar Court scheme was built in 1976; a small part of Titchfield Park south in Hucknall, where houses were constructed during the 1940s; and the land on which Hucknall Leisure Centre was built in the 1980s.
According to a report being considered by the council’s Cabinet on Monday 27 July, all three areas were charitable trust land intended to be held for public recreation. The developments were therefore carried out in error and in breach of the trusts’ charitable objectives.
The report stresses that the larger remaining areas of Lord Francis Park and Titchfield Park are unaffected.
The council identified the problem while voluntarily registering previously unregistered council-owned land with the Land Registry. This work found that several areas, including a number of green spaces, were held by the authority as trustee rather than being owned outright for general council purposes.
These trusts were created when land was left to the council on the condition that it continued to be used for a charitable purpose, such as a public recreation ground.
Under the proposals, the council would receive the affected section of Lord Francis Park from the Kirkby-in-Ashfield Recreation Ground, Lord Francis Park Charitable Trust. In return, an area of Kingsway Park owned outright by the council would be transferred into the trust.
Both parcels have been independently valued at £18,500. Council officers say the Kingsway Park land is of a roughly equal size, is well-maintained and accessible, and can continue to be used as a recreation ground.
A second exchange is proposed in Hucknall. The council would receive the affected section of Titchfield Park south and the land occupied by Hucknall Leisure Centre from their respective charitable trusts.
In return, an area of council-owned land at Titchfield Park north would be transferred to the Titchfield Park Hucknall Charitable Trust and the Hucknall Recreation Grounds Charitable Trust.
The affected land at Titchfield Park south has been valued at £22,900, while the Hucknall Leisure Centre land has been valued at £89,500. The replacement land at Titchfield Park north has been valued at £112,400 – equal to the combined value of the two areas being released from the trusts.
The Hucknall Leisure Centre valuation covers the existing buildings, car park and proposed extended car park area. The report says an earlier valuation included open space to the north-west, but this would have produced a significantly more unequal exchange in terms of land size and value.
All the valuations were prepared on the basis that the land was restricted to public open-space use and that no development had taken place. Cabinet members must decide whether to rely on valuations commissioned on behalf of the trusts or obtain separate valuations for the council in its corporate capacity.
The proposed exchanges would not remove the replacement areas from recreational use. Once transferred into the trusts, the Kingsway Park and Titchfield Park north land would have to be maintained as recreation grounds for residents in accordance with the trusts’ charitable purposes.
The council submitted Serious Incident Reports to the Charity Commission in September 2024 after receiving external legal advice. These alerted the regulator that charitable property was at risk because land had been built on contrary to its intended purpose.
This followed a letter sent by the Charity Commission to council chief executives across the country in August 2024, asking authorities to ensure they were complying with their duties as charity trustees. The regulator highlighted cases in which councils had changed the use or status of charitable land, or disposed of it, without recognising that it was charity property.
The Charity Commission has since told Ashfield District Council that it wants to see clear proposals for resolving the three cases, including potential land exchanges.
Several stages would still be required before either exchange could be completed. Cabinet is being asked to authorise the proposals on behalf of the council in its corporate capacity, but decisions involving trust land must be taken separately by the council as sole trustee.
Ashfield established a Charities Committee in 2008 to consider matters involving land held in trust. The committee makes recommendations to the full council, which is responsible for approving charitable land transactions. A conflicts of interest policy was also approved by the committee in February 2025.
The council would have to advertise the proposed disposal of public open space at Kingsway Park and Titchfield Park north for two consecutive weeks in a local newspaper. Plans and explanatory information would also be published on the council’s website, made available at its Urban Road offices and displayed at park entrances.
Residents would be invited to submit objections or representations by email or post. A separate Charity Commission consultation would then be held for people who benefit from the trusts.
Any responses would be considered by the Charities Committee and full council before the exchanges were referred to the Charity Commission for a final decision. The transactions cannot be completed without the regulator’s consent.
The report says the council is expected to meet the external legal costs associated with resolving the cases, although the total is not yet known. Officers will seek to cover the expense from existing budgets or report back to Cabinet under the authority’s financial regulations.
It also says resolving the issues before local government reorganisation’s Vesting Day would help protect the charitable assets for Ashfield residents.
